IAmA Puerto Rican without power since Irma(86 days)! AMA

What are your thoughts on the 200,000+ people who have permanently moved to the U.S. since the storm?

My heart goes out for them. There’s a few colleagues of mine that completely lost their homes. One day you’re fine and then the next day your home is just shattered. I can’t imagine how it felt to lose everything and then having to move to the US.

Are you committed to staying in Puerto Rico regardless of how the recovery efforts may progress?

Edit: if so, what's your main motivation to do so? (Not saying one or the other is right, just curious)

My plan has always been to move to the states AFTER I finish college. Even my parents agree that my future doesn’t lie in PR, but outside of the island.

My wife is Puerto Rican and we have family in Yabucoa. Are you able to get plenty of food? Are they rationing and when do you expect to have power back? Also, where are you on the island?

Stay safe my friend. :-)

Food isn’t an issue for us(thankfully). I’ve seen the military delivering food when it was most chaotic. I expect the power to be back around April-June of next year. Also I live in San Juan in an area that is known as a “bolsillo” which basically means we are the last to get power in the municipality. Idk how it’s called in English.

I expect the power to be back around April-June of next year.

That is a very long time. How do you power your device you are communicating on right now?

Family from the mainland sent us 4 portable battery chargers. They also sent us a Generator on November and we turn it on from 5pm-9am so during that period we charge the batteries and all devices. Whenever we’re going out we take 1 battery with us :)

A dead zone? (Literally means pocket)

Yea that. Forgot what it was called in English.

How much do you believe needs to be done to repair remaining damage to the island?

Also how's college? What are you studying?

The government really needs to stop focusing on contracts with companies like Whitefish and focus on the people first. This really shouldn’t be taking this long.

After the hurricane the cell service at college is completely down and still is. I’m working on a Associate Degree of Technology of Instrumentation(Electricity)

This really shouldn’t be taking this long.

How long should it take? Seems like a huge job.

Like I said in another question. The government focused on sketchy contracts first and refused to take the help from local truckers. Which slowed down the process by a shit load.

So what I take from what you're saying is that the 'delay' while figuring out contracts has been the only issue on why this is taking so long. I picture as if literally no one was doing anything while the government sorted out contracts, is this true?

Honestly the entire public knows about the whole Whitefish ordeal so while /u/SheriffLevy was a bit of a dick about it, I kind of hoped for more here

Hoped for more? Dude, you are talking to a guy who survived a hurricane, was without power, is living off of a generator, who made himself available to answer anyone's questions on Reddit while trying to finish college. The premise of all of this is that you are talking to a college student who's living in Puerto Rico about the hurricane. Were you hoping for expert testimonial, professional opinion? Maybe he could do a google search and get you the links to that information, or perhaps skim that information then give you a summary of it?

Ok I'm being a little sarcastic. But really it just seems like you were offended at his answer. It just seems unnecessary. This isn't an investigatory work of journalism, nor does it ever claim to be. This is a conversation with a guy living there now. Isn't there value in learning about how the recovery efforts seem to the people who are actually depending on them?

Your response is just golden lol. There are a few things in here that I just can’t respond to cause I don’t have full knowledge about them

How are you using reddit, without power?

Cell data. AT&T gave out like 3 months of free data for those affected by the hurricane.

How do you have charge on your phone?

Like this. I own 6 of these

So how are you charging THOSE?

power cables connected to a generator that I can’t take a pic of right now

So technically you do have power. Just not city supplied.

Yeah majority are getting generators cause this is going to be long term. The Governor promised that power will be back on December but that is very optimistic & unrealistic.

Are there still tourist coming in to PR at the moment? I visited PR around a month before all these hurricanes happened, and it just sunk my soul.

From what I’ve heard there have been very little tourists coming here. The few that come our doing it out of aid. Our rainforest, El Yunque was absolutely destroyed, not a single green leave was left. Idk how it’s doing right now.

Not El Yunque!!!!! Even in August it was already dangerous to visit due to the rain and mudslides?! This sucks

Yunque after the storm

Dear god, take my upvote and get this to the top!

ThAt iS NoT a QuEsTiON!!1!

Jk lol thanks

Oh rip my Reddit bugged out and I thought this was a single thread xd

How has going outside changed since Irma?

It’s made m dad more paranoid than he already was lol. Since there’s no traffic lights, there’s constant traffic and a lot of car accidents. So out of safety we don’t go out after 6pm cause it’s super dark and the road is filled with crazy drivers.

the road is filled with crazy drivers.

This sounds like normal PR to me!

Crazy unhinged drivers!1!

How is the municipal water situation?

I have a friend that works for the PR water utility, I last saw him in September right before the storms. He was headed down there knowing he was going to be faced with a big challenge. I have not heard form him since, I imagine he's working a lot.

At least my area’s water supply didn’t get cut off/contaminated. Tho I got a few friends in Guaynabo & Bayamon that don’t have water.

how much english is spoken in puerto rico?

Majority of the population speaks it but the minority speaks it fluently. I speak it fluently. I’m in a group chat with 18 ppl(close friends and some of their friends) and our conversations are 95% in English and 5% in Spanglish lol

Has Lin Manuel Miranda helped in with the foundation/ the money that goes to Puerto Rico relief ? I saw an article that college kids protested against him saying “this is not your stage” or something. I just want to know if he’s actually helping out! :)

He has indeed! And idk why those kids protested against him D: Like we need all the help we could get, don't reject it lol.

I am from the UPR, I was there when the protest happened. It was jyst because Lin Manuel supports some projects a handful of kids were against. It was more cringy than actually serious. Afterwards he just laughed it off and said he wanted to bring Hamilton to the UPR

Ah oki. I study at Inter so prob why I didn’t hear about it.

How long haven't you had power? Also, where are you from?

86 days but 2 days before Marie I got power for 10 seconds and it went away Dx lol.

I live in San Juan

Do you spin that ceiling fan for fun?

Haha no I don’t. But I got my cats for that so does that count?

I work with a group of people from PR my company flew out of the island after the storm. They did say that crime was a major concern after the storm. Is that still the case? Any personal experience with that?

Stay safe and I wish you the very best.

The crime died down after the military started to roam around the streets. I saw a couple of military vans that were just going around my neighborhood and helping anyone in need.

Are all parts of the government functioning? Like could you do something basic like get your birth certificate?

Basic stuff like that is functioning pretty well so yea

Why do so many of your peers choose not to learn, or at least not to speak, English?

I don’t quite understand how ppl here don’t know English because we are a US Colony. Our main language is Spanish AND English. English is taught in all schools. Private and public schools. When I used to go to a public College before I switched to a closer & private college, majority of the people there barely knew English or they opted to not speak it cause they weren’t fluent and were bad at it. But in the private college there are classes given in English. So it’s prob depends on the amount of education given in public vs private schools.

Thank you! That's interesting. I was worried my question would come off as offensive but it wasn't intended to be. I had read that cities in Florida with large recent PR immigration volumes were struggling with how to handle high school-aged kids who didn't speak English and it blew my mind.

I read somewhere that you can claim SS disability if you don't speak English and that PR had a high proportion claiming that disability rather than others. BUT I readily admit I didn't look into it anymore and remain skeptical.

Good luck with the rest of your studies, especially with the added burden of making your own electricity to submit your papers.

Luckily my professors aren’t giving homework cause of the current issues so now the highest grade from our tests will count twice.

So does anyone know where(that isn’t YouTube) I could upload some videos so I can share with you guys?

What's your opinion on Monstercat?

I once believed they were a great label but recently they’ve been declining :(

How are you online?

Free cell data thanks to AT&T

And what about keeping your phone charged? If you guys have access to 89 day batteries then hook us up!

I have a generator which we turn on from 5pm-9am and during that time we charge our electronics & batteries.

Has this changed your thoughts or opinions on the US government?

At first it did. I was frustrated how slow the help from the President arrived. Like getting rid of the Jones Act 2 weeks after the storm instead of right after it, how he threw paper towels at a crowd instead of giving out food, how he didn’t even visit the most damaged areas on the island and how he said that 16 deaths was something to be proud of(even tho 900+ deaths actually occurred but it wasn’t officially documented by the local government)

Are volunteers needed or are resources and money more valuable? If volunteers are needed how can that be done?

We’re pretty good on volunteers thankfully :) Money is always needed(debt crisis exdee)

How are you posting on the internet if you do not have power?

I am not trying to be funny. I honestly have wondered if you have the opportunity to charge you’re phones or use internet somewhere.

AT&T is providing free data for those affected by the hurricane and I’m living off a generator now that we turn on from 5pm-9am and that’s when I charge stuff.

Do you have enough paper towels?

I do indeed

How does PR plan to pay for the cost of the recording required over there?

I have no idea lol. We are in debt crisis and then this happened. Maria cost between $45 billion - $95 billion in damage. The Debt exceeds $70 billion so now that’s a lot of money we need lol

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Then I can’t give you whatever you consider as better proof. If you could explain then maybe I can.

How did you charge your phone without power??? 🤔🤔🤔🤔

I have a generator from 5pm-9am and I use that time to charge my electronics.

How do you get the gasoline to power the generator?

The gasoline stations have been normalized and they allow ppl to fill their gas canisters for obvious reasons.

Why don't you just get more power?

Not high enough level for more power :(

How is that proof?

To all accusing me right now, I’m in an area where there’s barely any cell service. I can’t give you the proof that you want because pictures of the damage from Maria aren’t being uploaded to Imgur. I don’t understand how you can assume that someone would lie going through something like this.

No one is accusing you, dude. What's with the persecution complex?

You called your picture proof, and I asked what that picture is proof of

I thought I had to show a proof of myself? My first post got deleted cause it had no proof then the bot told me what I had to do and I did it.

How is it not? Did I forget to write something down?

How is it not?

What exactly do you think that picture is proof of?

I saw another Puerto Rican doing an AMA and my pic was about the same as his so idk what I could be doing wrong. It’s my first AMA so excuse me if there is something wrong

Another Puerto Rican doing an AMA that I saw used a photo of hurricane damage with his username. This one doesn't do that.

Most of the damage in my area is already gone? Trees been cut down and stuff. I can’t go back in time and plop my username next to it?

Understandable.

I edited in the few pictures I have. My original phone died during the hurricane and the backup I had was a month before September so anything I took is gone. I got the pics from my brother. I have a video of the flooding during the storm saved in my Snapchat but idk where I can upload it and share.

How is that proof?

How is it not?

But again, what exactly do you think your picture is proof of?

That a fucking hurricane passed through Puerto Rico dumbass

what exactly do you think your picture is proof of?

That a fucking hurricane passed through Puerto Rico dumbass

How is a picture of half OP's face proof of that, sport

my balcony thanks to María. Hope this is enough